Highlanders 2023
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@friedrugby said in Highlanders 2023:
@Crucial I'll tell you how to get crowd numbers - win games... it really is that simple, if the Highlanders were unbeaten heading into a weekend fixture late in the season (e.g Not this weekend which is duck shooting), I'd fairly confidently say the crowd would be around 18k, which is very good.
I know myself, I don't really want to go, because I know we will lose (though I'm going to anyway.)
thats the problem though, the truly great clubs build supporter bases that go win or lose...not fair weather fans, carlton in the AFL had over 100k members whilst wooden spooners
concentrating on just winning is how we end up with 2013 and trying to buy in a couple of AB's...
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@friedrugby said in Highlanders 2023:
@Crucial I'll tell you how to get crowd numbers - win games... it really is that simple, if the Highlanders were unbeaten heading into a weekend fixture late in the season (e.g Not this weekend which is duck shooting), I'd fairly confidently say the crowd would be around 18k, which is very good.
I know myself, I don't really want to go, because I know we will lose (though I'm going to anyway.)
Of course that happens. We all know that there are lots like yourself plus fairweather punters.
The trick comes when the team isn't winning and you are trying to avoid a downward spiral of public and player interest. How do you keep engagement when a team is rebuilding? You can't rely on being winners all the time. For every winner there is a loser so logic tells me that over time relying on winning is stupid.
Look at other big sports comps that have underperforming teams. Some even market themselves on being underdog battlers FFS.
I have often supported teams that are in a category of 'we may not always win but you will get entertained'. -
@Crucial The Highlanders simply aren't entertaining though... perhaps I was a bit extreme, but unless you are a true diehard fan, who wants to go watch their home team get pummeled, playing drab rugby.
You don't have to win every week, sure, but you've got to show the fans something... that game against the Canes was shocking, and it has been backed up with a shocker of a trip to Aus.
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@friedrugby thats what i think rugby needs to work out, why do +40k afl fans go week in week out even if their team is rubbish...maybe not the same numbers but similar in football in the UK, thousands will go home and away spending hours and hundred of pounds going around the country
It what fans of other sports do, go to the pub at lunch time, catch up with mates, go to the game, its a whole day thing....NZ rugby fans just seems to go "meh...too hard"
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2023:
@friedrugby thats what i think rugby needs to work out, why do +40k afl fans go week in week out even if their team is rubbish...maybe not the same numbers but similar in football in the UK, thousands will go home and away spending hours and hundred of pounds going around the country
It what fans of other sports do, go to the pub at lunch time, catch up with mates, go to the game, its a whole day thing....NZ rugby fans just seems to go "meh...too hard"
Yep. Fan engagement. You actually want fans getting together and bitching about how shit the team is.
That's what I was implying. The management thinking needs to find innovative ways to engage the fans. -
@Kiwiwomble New Zealand is also very expensive relative to local incomes. Especially for younger people who don't outright own property.
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@Tim very true, there are also different attitudes, i know loads of people in the UK that have never and would never own a property, you rent for life, less common but still something ive come across in Aus
the things that stop rugby growing like other sporting in lots of parts of NZ might not be solvesable
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@Kiwiwomble Yeah, and there are other factors like transport. Hard to spend the day at the pub, if you have to drive etc.
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@Tim definitely, i have a really good corner pub 100m one way, another really good one about 700m the other way, we actually worked out we have 10-12 good pubs (not counting a couple that are basically pokie dens) within 20min walk, we even did a bit of a tour over the last several months of going to a different one every few sundays for a Parma and a Pint...all stuff i couldnt do in NZ easily
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@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2023:
@friedrugby stick hunt in there, we're going to get battered so i would rather he copped it than anyone else
Hunt's due... game winning drop goal me thinks
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@friedrugby said in Highlanders 2023:
@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2023:
@friedrugby stick hunt in there, we're going to get battered so i would rather he copped it than anyone else
Hunt's due... game winning drop goal me thinks
He still owes us one
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@Kiwiwomble Named on the bench... that dagger is going to hit so good.
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